I woke up this morning feeling pretty depressed about year 7 of SEC football domination, but this headline brought me right back: Source: KHL Could Keep Kovalchuk. Three days into the return of the 2013 NHL season and the hated NJ Devils may not return their best player. This is probably wishful thinking right now- the NHL and the KHL have an internal agreement to release all NHL players from the KHL after ratification of the new CBA, but while most players are returning home, Kovalchuk played for his KHL team on Tuesday (yes, in the future).This will be interesting to follow, but it got me thinking: what other good things have come out of the Lockout?

As always, your unbiased, objective analysis:

The Five Best Things to Come from the NHL Lockout

This is how it felt watching the Giants this year

5- It’s Easier to Forget About the Giants Dropping a Steaming Turd on Each and Every Fan

Look, you can’t win every year unless you’re Lance Armstrong on steroids, but is it too much to ask you to not rip my heart out with a spoon? The season lacked luster, but it doesn’t feel like too long ago that the Giants had strong control of their own destiny. The NFL scheduling gods didn’t do us any favors towards the end of the year, and that’s no excuse, but mixed in with a little of Eli’s patented “pretend apathy,” and a nonexistent pass rush, it was the formula for a piss poor finish to the football season. A couple of great Super Bowl wins made it easy to forget the mind-numbing torture usually instituted by the Giants; this season helped us remember. At least the NHL is back to help us forget again. Let’s hope this doesn’t become a trend.

4- The Knicks are Better than Decent

Now, there is your sports fan that likes, or even loves hockey (like me), and there is your rabid hockey fan who sleeps with his skates on and drinks ice shavings out of a Tim Horton’s cup (like Daftpuck); number 4 does not apply to the later. But to everyone else we realized something: we could survive without hockey. Yes, life is much better drinking Molsons and watching King Henrik win Vezinas, but with the Knicks rolling this season my world didn’t collapse. The season still hasn’t hit the All-Star Break, and the Knicks are 5-5 in their last ten games due to some growing and injury pains, so this would be higher on my list if it were April, but for right now I’ll take it. Amare seems to be accepting his reduced role- which is the key to whether the Knicks could be just good or actually become great. Melo is getting fired up and starting fights with old curmudgeons like KG. Its going to be fun to see how this season plays out.

3- Ilya Kovulchuk Wants to Stay Home and Marty Brodeur is Old

We already talked about Kovulchuk, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t the best news I’ve heard in a long time. I was already excited that Marty is so old- I mean come on, this has to be the year he starts sucking, right??? This just takes it to a whole ‘nother level. The Devils could go from Stanley Cup to missing the playoffs in under a year. It sucks when the Giants do it, but this will make up for it.

2- The NY Rangers Could Keep Their Young Core Together

The debate over the NHL salary cap meant a lot more for the NY Rangers than for most other teams. If the owners got what they wanted the cap would have been around 60 million, but the players stood strong and got their number- 64.3 million. The Rangers already have almost 52 million of that committed, and with the remainder would be faced with the daunting task of resigning Derek Stepan and Ryan McDonagh without enough money. With an extra 4.3 million to play with, the Rangers might keep their core of young talent intact.

1- The Rangers are the Clear-cut Stanley Cup Favorites

They knocked on the door last year, but their smash-mouth style sputtered out towards the end of the year. This year gives us a 50 or 48 game season- either way short enough for Hank and his crew to bully their way to the Stanley Cup Championship. Plus, they added Rich Nash in the offseason, one of the game’s top ten scorers, without giving up too much (Anisimov was good but it’s called a trade, they couldn’t get him for free). The Rangers were so close last year, but their bruising style wore them out, plus they were just a few goals too short. A shorter season will keep Hank fresh for the playoffs, keep the defensemen blocking shots late into June, and the addition of Nash could be just enough to get a few more pucks in the back of the net. Thanks to the NHL Lockout were going to spend the end of June in the Canyon of Heroes.

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For some reason the beer flowed extra strong on Friday, Glory Days was bumping over the bar speakers, and the brain trust inner circle of 90on95 decided to get back together (and no, the word brain should have no association with any of us). The whole thing reminded me of Bruce Springsteen singing about that guy who used to be able to throw that fastball by you. But, the next morning I woke up to this prediction by TimmyP, and god damn did he hit the nail on the head. I couldn’t help but think that this dog could still hunt. The wheels started spinning a little bit, and here we are, getting the band back together.

It’s been about a year since I’ve even thought about posting anything (I was riding a one-year high from predicting Eli’s second Super Bowl party) and I’ve felt pretty good about predicting within two points of the second happiest sports result of my life. Anyway, like Jordan wearing the 45 (mainly just because I suck at baseball), it’s time to dust-off the old keyboard and get back to talking about the funny, odd moments of sports.

We’re not on a mission backed by god to save the Catholic orphanage from foreclosure, but we can still manage to piss off and piss on everyone from the Good Ole Boys to the Illinois Nazi Party by bringing you all the sports, rumors, and humor from the Ben Franklin to the George Washington.

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All the talk on the street has been about the Giants’ pass rush getting to Brady. They are right; kind of. The real key to this game will be forcing Brady into 7-step drops and giving the pass rush the time they need to get to him. The Giants safeties, Rolle, Grant and Phillips, will have to step up in the box and make tackles early to force Brady to take some shots deep. If the Pats are able to dink and dunk all day the Giants pass rush will be a non-factor. The Patriots had the 20th ranked rush attack this year, and Brady effectively replaced their run game by dominating on passes under 10 yards. I’d look up the stats, but there are bigger things to worry about right now; namely, scotch…. and soda.

Everyone is expecting offense this game. Maybe. I think Belichick and Coughlin turn this into a throwback battle between two franchises that made their mark with defense. Plaxico was right, just 4 years too late:

I’m likin TimmyP’s pick for the later game. Too much pass rush. Too much Eli. Need a little motivation? This clip of Lawrence Taylor should get the job done. Let’s go out there like a bunch of crazed dogs and have some fun.

Here we go again. Another October for all the marbles. Baseball playoffs. Hockey season firing up. Football getting into swing. What more can a guy ask for?

The Yankees face the supposedly untouchable Justin Verlander tonight. Yesterday ESPN NY writer Wallace Matthews said that it’s safe to assume the Yankees will lose because Verlander won 96% of his starts this year. When I double checked the numbers, Verlander won 24 out of 39 starts- a hardly untouchable 62%. I Tweeted him and he responded saying that if he was a math major he’d be doing something else and that he meant 96% of his decisions. Only problem is Verlander has only won 82% of his decisions.

Verlander is a great pitcher, but he’s set to face another great pitcher in CC Sabathia. Yanks need to get the bats going, and they need their aging stars to produce. This is going to be Posada’s last post season in pinstripes, and I’m expecting him to go out with a bang. The Yanks path to championship number 28 starts now. Yankees win game 1 5-4.

***UPDATE*** Wallace Matthews just tweeted me back and said we’re cool and that he made a mistake and should be called for it. Very respectable. GO YANKS

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At least watching a Dallas Cowboys game is bearable considering all the talent.

As you all know, the New York vs. Philly rivalry can get a little bit heated at times. I just want to take the opportunity on the first day of NFL free agency to remind all of us of one uniting factor- the Dallas Cowboys suck. They always will be the most hated team on this website, regardless of the fact that the Eagles are about to sign Plaxico and Tiki. The Dallas Cowboys do have a great set of cheerleaders though…

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The Daily Drive is a daily (duh) post of all the prominent things going on in the sports world we didn’t cover, and anything else we might want to share with you. Like how I want to leave work so bad that I’m too lazy to come up with a joke for The Drive.

–Yanks lose 5-3 to the Tribe. They start a 4 game home stand against the Rays today. The timeless Bartolo Colon (6-3) faces Jeff Niemann (3-4). Derek Jeter needs only three hits to reach 3,000 and is a career 5-9 when facing Niemann. More importantly the Yanks are 1-8 against the Sox this year, but still cling to a .5 game lead.

– If the NBA lockout continues then Deron Williams will be playing in Turkey. And if the lockout goes on even longer, maybe people will start watching hockey again.

On second thought....

-Mets continue to roll, beat Dodgers 5-3. Still hard for me to believe they will ever be a legit contender.

-Yeah, weddings are great. Nothing like showing your wife how lucky she is.

The man who found Osama, Phillies results, Brett Favre back in the news and more after the jump.

ESPN– Philadelphia right-hander Roy Oswalt will be further examined Friday, a day after leaving a start with back trouble in the second inning.

Though Oswalt said after the game Thursday he wouldn’t have an MRI until Monday, Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. told ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark he would be checked out Friday and that the team expects to get an update on his condition Friday night or Saturday.

So it looks like the Phillies may be one ace short of a full deck. Of course they will be fine with the holy triumvirate of Hammels, Lee and the “other” Roy, but the scariest team in the NL just got a little bit less scary. Hey, I’ve always been an Oswalt fan, and I never like to see a good dude go down with an injury, but as a Yankee fan I can’t say I am all that upset. Oswalt was on the DL from April 27th to May 16th with a similar back issue. Problem is back injuries don’t just go away. Especially not when you’re a 33 year old pitcher that has thrown more than 2100 innings. Unfortunately for Philly fans, Oswalt did not sound too upbeat about his future. I leave you with this:

“You throw as long as you can and when you can’t throw anymore you don’t,” the 33-year-old pitcher said after the game. “Hopefully it’s not to the point where I can’t throw anymore. If it’s at that point, you just have to accept it.”

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It is quite fitting that Philadelphia works so well with Philthadelphia. Enjoy our dead geese you pathetic-ass excuse for a city. Yeah that’s right. Philly is going to feed itself with the dead carcasses of geese killed in NY. It doesn’t get much more pathetic than that. And yes, if I was fielding a team of convicks, I would need seven hours to get drunk before I went to a game also. Enjoy your goosesteaks and dead pitbull hot dogs. You disgust me.